derail
UK/ˌdiːˈɹeɪl//ˌdiˈɹeɪl/
derail noun: synonym of derailer: A device placed on railway tracks in order to cause a train to derail.
Noun
derail (plural derails)
Verb
derail (third-person singular simple present derails, present participle derailing, simple past and past participle derailed)
- To cause to come off the tracks.
- The train was destroyed when it was derailed by the collision.
- Among recommendations arising out of the accident were that greater attention should be devoted to the means of derailing runaways on lines so heavily graded as the Highland main line; were it double throughout, catch points would, of course, be laid in, but the catchpoint problem is a difficult...1940 November, “Notes and News: A Highland Collision”, in Railway Magazine, page 612
- To come off the tracks.
- Fortunately, the CrossCountry train did not derail when it struck the mud. It could easily have been much worse.2020 September 9, Paul Clifton, “Heavy rainfall causes landslip in Hampshire: At the scene...”, in Rail, page 10
- To deviate from the previous course or direction.
- The conversation derailed once James brought up politics.
- To cause to deviate from a set course or direction.
- The protesting students derailed the professor's lecture.
- Our offices are full of the walking wounded--people who are suicidal, have been hospitalized after the sexual involvement, unable to hold their usual jobs, derailed from intimate relationships, unable to get on with their lives as they once had planned.1990 December 23, Nancy Avery et al., “Criminalizing Doctor-Patient Sex”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 23, page 5
derail meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
derail in Tamil
- தடம் புரள், தடம் புரளச் செய்
derail in Urdu
- پٹری سے اترنا, پٹری سے اتارنا
derail in Telugu
- పట్టాలు తప్పడానికి
derail in Malayalam
- to cause to come off the tracks
- പാളം തെറ്റുക pāḷaṁ teṟṟuka
More languagesFewer languages
- derail in Kannada
- ಹಳಿತಪ್ಪು, ವಿಫಲಗೊಳಿಸು, ದಾರಿಗೆಡಿಸು, ದಾರಿಗೆಡು
- derail in Vietnamese
- trật bánh
Examples of derail in a sentence
- Ten of the freight train's wagons had derailed, two of them foul of the Down Fast.
- These tubs when derailed had to be lifted on with sheer brute strength.
- Although people may not be good at suppressing unwanted thoughts and derailing unbidden ruminations, practice makes progress.
Synonyms of derail
Forms of derail
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | derails |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | derails |
| present participle | derailing |
| past participle | derailed |
| past | derailed |
Origin of derail
From French dérailler (“to go off the rails”). Analyzable as de- + rail.
Words formed from derail
Words that rhyme with derail
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- veil
- pale
- avail
- wale
- whale
- bail
- hail
- yale
- bale
- snail
- travail
- brail
- exhale
- frail
- jail
- prevail
- swale
- vail
- wail
- dwale
- entail
- flail
- Gail
- gayle
- impale
- kale
- quail
- regale
- spale
- thumbnail
- white whale
- ale
- curtail
- drail
- gale
- inhale
- retail
- shale
- tael
- unveil
- ail
- all hail
- assail
- ayel
- beyond the pale
- braille
- cakes and ale
- camail
Questions about derail
- What does derail mean?
- Derail means synonym of derailer: A device placed on railway tracks in order to cause a train to derail.
- What is derail in Tamil?
- Derail in Tamil is தடம் புரள், தடம் புரளச் செய். See Derail meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is derail?
- Derail can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce derail?
- Derail is pronounced /ˌdiːˈɹeɪl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of derail?
- The plural of derail is derails.
Words near derail in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: derail (page history and authors); derail (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); derail (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); derail (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); derail (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-derail.ogg.
Cite this entry: “derail.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/derail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.